Bill Belichick: Blame me, not Chris Jones

Posted by Josh Alper on October 21, 2013, 1:23 PM EDT

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Immediately after the Jets made good on the second chance provided by Patriots defensive lineman Chris Jones’ personal foul for trying to push a teammate through the Jets’ line on a missed field goal in overtime, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said he thought it was a bad call because the push didn’t come from the second level of the defense.

Belichick was wrong about the rule, which makes no distinction about where players line up at the start of the play despite some confusion stemming from the way the league referred to the rule when it was put in place during the offseason. Jones said he knew the rule and said he deserved the blame for committing the foul, but Belichick said Monday that the burden should fall on him instead of Jones.

“I think Chris is obviously trying to do the right thing by stepping up and taking responsibility but that’s not his responsibility, it’s ours,” Belichick said, via the Boston Globe. “We just have to do a better job of coaching that. It’s not his fault, that’s on me [and] the coaching staff, we just have to do a better job there.”

Belichick said it was the team’s job to know the rules when asked if confusion about how it was articulated led to the penalty and that Jones was doing something that the team’s coaches had told him to do. If that’s the case, it’s hard to argue against Belichick’s request for blame on a costly penalty.

53 responses to “Bill Belichick: Blame me, not Chris Jones”

Belicheck says it was the team’s job to know the rule, but Chris Jones said he knew the rule. Let Chris take responsibility. Despite the mishap he played a really solid game for 4 quarters and he will only get better from this one mistake.

I was at the game and I was appalled by the call. Was a dumb call? Probably. Was it the right call? Yes. It’s not enforced enough and it’s sad its called at such a crucial point, BUT that’s the rule. He should have let Folk kick it we all knew he wouldn’t hit a 56 yarder in MetLife. The Patriots lost because the Jets have a great D and disrupted TB all day, which is why he had less than 250 yards passing and 0 tds. The run game looked good against their stout D though. I can still see NE winning the division, but not sure how far they can go in the postseason unless they are healthy. Btw, I hate Ryan but this win may have saved his job if hes goes 8-8, he still deserves to keep it. Considering the talent he has, and what he carved that D into.

Hey Belichick , you lost bruh !! It’s sucks to lose by being cheated by Refs just like the Saints got cheated last week on the last play of the game.
Suck on that loss you spygate cheating idiot !!! BTW before Pats fans start attacking about Saints Bounty …..SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE !!!! NO BODY HAS EVIDENCE !!! There is NO evidence there was a bounty ….

Hey Belichick , you lost bruh !! It’s sucks to lose by being cheated by Refs just like the Saints got cheated last week on the last play of the game.
Suck on that loss you spygate cheating idiot !!! BTW before Pats fans start attacking about Saints Bounty …..SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE !!!! NO BODY HAS EVIDENCE !!! There is NO evidence there was a bounty ….
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Yes, the Patriots lost fair and square if that was the rule that gave us the penalty.

You should grow up unless you’re actually 12 years old.

And while I didn’t personally see the Bountygate evidence, your coaches didn’t get that huge suspension for nothing, Buddy.

BB is bad for the whole league.
Very selfish coach that only cares about himself and will cheat and complain to look better.
There will never be any trophies named after him because he is an embarrassment!!

Nice knee jerk leadership here Bill. Which version of truth are you going with?

Belicheat is such a tool…

Its amazing the Patriots are so competitive year in & year out with him at the helm…

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When you make an initial comment not knowing you’re wrong, and then admit later on that you were in fact wrong after getting clarification on the rule, how is that offering a different version of the truth? How does that make him a tool? He admitted to not having the correct interpretation of the rule and took full responsibility. While we’re at it – it’s equally amazing how inept the Jets are year after year.

I wrote last night that it was obvious that this was a play that had been practised by the Patriots. Once BB started going on about the “second level” and all, you just knew that Chris Jones’ “I had no idea about the rule” excuse was total B.S..

I’m not a fan of either team but it sucks that the zebras decided the outcome of the game on some sort of obscure rule that never gets called and had no impact on the play. The teams battled for 4+ quarters…let the players decide the game.

There have been an awful lot of comments on this play, and a lot of blame being thrown around against Belichick, the refs, and the Patriots in general. A lot of the comments are righteous and deserved, and a lot of the comments are just plain hateful and ridiculous.

I haven’t seen a single comment blaming Jones. Commenters deserve to get kudos for that at least

If you read the linked article, it’s clear that the rule did not limit the penalty to players in the second level. It’s also very clear that the Head of Officiating’s interpretation of the rule was that the players had to be coming from the second level to get the penalty. Given that is all proven, it’s not far fetched to believe that Belichick was guided by officials on how the new rule would be applied at the start of the year, and he was guided to believe the penalty would be only to second level players.

Belechick would therefore allow the players in the first level to continue to push and train them to do so.

There’s a reason that Officials travel to each team to explain rules etc. each year. There’s supposed to be consistency on how rules are called. It is very clear that the rule and the Head of Officiating’s interpretation were different. That’s not really fair to teams.

It’s good that coach took the blame because unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock, he’ll do whatever it takes to gain an edge…legal or illegal. I know, I know, Pats fans…thumbs down. No reason to start facing the truth now.

Not sure you can fault the Patriot fans for being a little miffed. Unfortunately, following the letter of the rule, they did in fact commit a penalty.
Personally, I would have rather let the teams decide the outcome. Admittedly, I enjoy watching the Patriots over the Jets any day, so my opinion may be a bit skewed.

BTW I’m a Cowboys fan and I can’t stand Belicheck. However just like ANYONE on this board if he became my head coach, I would happier than a camel on Wednesday.

I think everyone new nick folk was going to miss that kick. It’s a call you don’t make in overtime. I hate seeing games decided by the officials and more than likely the patriots would have gone on to win. An undeserved victory for the jets might get them into the playoffs we will see.

Seems to me by most of the posts that the Patriots fans have accepted the loss as even I we don’t like the call, the Jets outplayed the Patriots when it mattered most and won the game.

Jets fans like jetsjetsjets now and steviethewiz remind me if that drunken idiot fan wearing he Wayne Chrebet jersey who punched a women in the face. But then again when you haven’t won anything for over 45 years , a regular season victory in OT is their Super Bowl.

So much butthurt in this and the other threads abot this topic. The same fans over and over using these threads to make whiny 3rd grade level inaccurate comments, really? It’s amusing and scary at the same time.

Say what you want about BB but he never throws his players under the bus. Unlike some people you all call “classy”all the time.

The Jets reminded the refs of this rule just before the play was run. The rule is a joke. BUT=
It was Brady and the Pats fault they lost, not the refs or the rules.
This Jets game was the worst performance by Brady in his life – not only his NFL career – his life!!! He better not be whining about the rest of the team because he was putrid, atrocious, a new low in QBing for a guy that Belechick should have traded for three very good defensive players two years ago.

Jones’ transparent attempt to fall on his sword was laughable. The Butt Bumble was a specifically designed play, taught and condoned by the Pats coaching staff, including BB. It starts at the top, and it’s ludicrous to believe a micro-manager like BB would not have been aware of the exact rule, nor his team’s implementing their ‘mis-interpretation’ of it. I have no doubt they had used it in previous games, and suspect the Jets coaching staff had noticed it on film and alerted the officials to it during pre-game. All teams had been briefed on the new rule in camp, yet the Pats attempted to use an erroneous NFL.com report as cover to capitalize on it and now justify it. It’s eerily similar to the kick-off ‘out-of-bounds and re-entering’ dust-up when film revealed the Pats had employed, if not originated, lining up their bench players close to the sidelines to impede opposing players. While I admire their tenacity in constantly looking for any edge in this rivalry, and relentlessly stretching the envelope, it goes far in explaining the contempt with which the rest of the league holds this franchise. It’s unnecessary, belittling, and getting very tiresome.

Dean Blandino was probably aware that the Pats tried the same maneuver last week against the Saints, and it wasn’t called on the Pats then. But had the call been made , it might have secured victory for the Saints by allowing them to chew up more of the clock and denying Brady his winning drive. So, the Pats arguably got payback from the league vs. the Jets in OT.